510 in the 520

My name is Andre Rioux and this blog will inventory all things landscape architecture as well as chronicle my adventures across southern Arizona as I pursue my Masters Degree.

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These are images from my Week 2 Contemporary find from Fall of last year. It features the 4th Ward Park, which in a historic section of Atlanta, Georgia. The park is part of a ongoing project known as the “Beltline” in Atlanta.

“Historic Fourth Ward Park Source: http://www.h4wpc.com/index.htm Published by historic fourth ward conservancy Related topics: Brown fields, urban redevelopment, Gentrification, water harvesting, public spaces, multi use Location: Atlanta, Georgia Size: 17 acres Firm: Atlanta Beltline Completion: February 2011 Old fourth ward park is located in an originally well-to-do neighborhood of Atlanta Georgia. The place is also historically significant in that it was the home of Martin Luther King Jr. and an important place during the civil rights movement. The neighborhood saw hardship during the 1970’s-80’s. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s the area was planned to be revitalized through a various funds, including Atlanta’s redevelopment firm beltline, and is among the first SITE (Sustainable Sites Initiative). The park replaced an unused theme park with a massive storm water basin, and features terraces, playgrounds, restrooms, an outdoor theater and even a skate park. The project cost $50 million, and has led to investment of over 400 million for the Old fourth ward neighborhood in the past three years. This site is often lauded as a case for gentrification; it now has a greater degree of racial diversity; an enriched sense of place; and is even considered a culinary destination. Additionally the park is an excellent example of both green infrastructure and multiuse space. Is gentrification bad? “

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Kelly mentioned rainwater harvesting, this video is narrated by a local water harvesting wizard Brad Lancaster, and should be of interest to some people.

Also below I posted some pictures of curb cuts in Tucson

And a few Reminders of just how power storms are in Tucson.

This is the 4th Avenue underpass.

These are the Rillito River.

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This was part of an exploratory assignment given in the fall of 2014, for Claire Robinson’s ARC 471. We were tasked with providing a comparison of two different parts of 4th Avenue. One section along the new street car route, the other in South Tucson. The two are radically different.

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Last year from August to December I interned at Mission Garden, just a few blocks away from El Mercado San Augustin. Mission Garden is a living history site where people can come into contact with the same varieties of Old World fruits that were brought to Primeria Alta, by missionaries like Father Kino. Additionally the Timeline Garden showcases agricultural methods from the Hohokam culture up to Arizona statehood. If you have interest in the history of Tucson, or in urban agriculture, this is a highly recommended site to visit.

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This was my contemporary find for week one in the fall 2014 for LAR 540, Contemporary Landscape Architecture.

“Pictured above is “Tree Wood” by architect Toshishiro Oki. This was the winning submission to the “Socrates sculpture park folly 2013”. Completed in February of 2013, the wooden framework is approximately 12’x15’x20’. The competition is part of an annual exercise at the Socrates sculpture park in New York City to create “architectural follies” which are sculptures or structures placed in gardens and landscapes that do not have purpose. Though the feature of follies is antiquated (popular during 18th and 19th century), the perspective which the frame work provides comes with relevant questions. In this history course, and my course on conservation planning and wildlife recreation, the question of whether or not signage should be a component of the landscape experience is asked, the quick answer is that signs are a necessary evil, but the question presses of how else we frame outside. In this case we have a platform which at the same time as appearing clunky, and out of place, engages visitors, and offers a different perspective of the natural surroundings. Pushing aside intended messages about visualizing indoor spaces in the context of a “natural environment” (in the not so subtle chandelier), “Tree Wood” pushes me to acknowledge the placement of “platforms”, and the implications of a view.  My parting inquiry asks which fosters better stewardship of the environment; the edge of a pier that dominates and looks over a body of water; or an unmolested shoreline that must be viewed from the edge of the same body”

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Sketches from the month of August

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The July issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine covers the rehabilitation Babi Yar Park in Denver Colorado.  Prior to reading piece on the most inspiring spaces to me were places that I had been too, the Amhitabha Stupa in Sedona, DeGrazia’s Gallery in the sun, and the Underwood Garden are all places that come to mind, that for different reasons established a personal connection with me. Now that I have read about Babi Yar Park I can say that I have connected to a place that I haven’t been too. The park memorializes the murder of Jewish people from Kiev during the World War II. Though I am not blood related, the parents of my uncle were Soviet Jews who evaded persecution in their early lifetime, as such Babi Yar Park memorializes and event that has affected my life, even if from the third degree. If this was not enough, the original designer of the park was a man by the name of Satoru Nishita. The resume belonging to Nishita is impressive, with work done under Lawrence Halprin, including the Lovejoy Fountain in Portland Oregon, but his origins are even intriguing. Nishita came from a Japanese American family, and was spent a portion of his young life in an internment camp in Arizona. This background holds weight considering the purpose of Babi Yar Park, and creates a relationship from me to him, even if it is based in shame for my nation’s actions.

Beyond the political import of the Babi Yar Park, I am captivated by the design of the place. Renders both from the original documents, and the restoration capture my sense of drive, and create a desire to advance my pursuit of work. The incorporation and manipulation of the Star of David, sets out pathways which provide excellent coverage of the seven acres.  The grove of linden trees provides quiet reflection. The lowered paths, and narrowed entryways through monuments create procession. The most fulfilling feature, to me, is the bridge with slots cut away for selected views of the native prairie vegetation, allowing a different perspective of the landscape.

The fact that the park was chosen to be restored holds my admiration, but the approach to restore has my fascination. Tina Bishop has taken the task to be continuation, reinterpretation, and completion of the site. Evidently the site was in disrepair and undermanaged, and underfunded. Since the restoration, infrastructure was improved, and plantings were made more natural in their palette selection. The fact that the restoration has been an ongoing process really illustrates that time is an additional dimension to space in landscape architecture. Outdoor space develop, and though they may reach highs and lows, they are never completed.

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“Cadillac Desert” from a Tucsonan’s Perspective

“Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water ” is the best known book by author and water policy activist Mark Reisner. Published in 1986, the book details land development and water policy in the American West.

Marc Reisner does not make use of the same romanticism as I have been exposed to in during my education of historical conservation. Instead Reisner forces readers to confront the absurdity of our continued occupation of the Southwest. We are introduced to the ongoing water struggles via a swift overview of the taming of the Southwest’s water sources.  That absurdity is predicated by hint of admiration for the resolve of the people who undertook the massive engineering needed to carve out a home in deserts of the Southwest. Whatever admiration is hinted, quickly dissolves into lament for ignored warning signs from, ancient civilizations, colonial settlers, and sharp minds like John Wesley Powell. The absurdity grows when you consider how many people are dependent on the snow pack of single mountain range. Shocking statistics concerning the foot acreage of water sold for pennies, at very little agricultural gain, and very significant cleaning, and diplomatic cost. In California agricultural effluent pollutes, kills, and prevents further growth, but water use for agriculture remains largely unregulated. Absence of regulation in California extends to rapid depletion of subterranean water stores millions of years in the making. The absurd peaks when Reisner drops the most difficult truth to swallow, and that is the ethic which surrounds water use in places like Arizona; the idea that unused water is water wasted. The thinking which fuels massive projects like the CAP, and the “future” projects he lists thereafter. The thinking which encourages high risk development. The thinking which makes it possible for places like Tucson, my home, to continue to exist.

My natural instinct is to counter on behalf of Tucson, that we are better, that we can endure. For the entirety of my memory, Tucson has been conservation friendly. We lead the nation in water conservation; from the time we start school we are lectured on ways to save water, for fear of the city sinking into the ground.  We are taught to embrace the flora and fauna of our region; we are certainly less attached to green grass fields than cities like Phoenix, or Los Angeles. However our success is only relative to other arid land cities; at the end of the day we live in a city which was founded on the bank of river that has not flowed for more than a century, and we need to pipe water 300 miles to quench our thirst. Even our conservation successes are marred by Jevon’s Paradox; conservation of a resource will often lead to increased consumption of that resource. The reason this happens is that reduced consumption can lead to a price drop, which reduces per capita cost of a resource, but draws in a higher number of users, creating greater overall consumption. This effect is true of the Tucson Metro area, where water conservation efforts since the seventies are correlated with an increased number of housing developments. In any case I will give my home credit for its history of awareness, because it always seems odd to me that the developments in California have the attention of the nation, when those have always been the concerns at home.

Reisner, does not call for tearing down dams, nor does pleaded on behalf of the wilderness for the sake of nature. Reisner simply states that the desert is no place for us to live, and that the Southwest cannot sustain developed urban conditions.  He states that renewable water sources alone hardly supplement the rapidly depleted stores of water beneath the ground. The way current legislature is concerned, we will run faucets until dust spews from the tap and we enter the fantasy settings of films like Water World, or Mad Max, where water is bought in blood. Realistically there will not be gangs of bandits fighting for water, just an untold number of people who will be displaced.

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These are all images walking around the main road of Old Bisbee, near Castle Rock. The hillside location of Bisbee means there are innumerable staircases around the town. Celebrating this feature, every October, Bisbee hosts a race known as the 1000 stair climb.

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These are a few photos of some interesting landscape features of Bisbee Arizona. Bisbee is located in the Mule Mountains in Cochise County, where copper was mined with tremendous fervor. between the 19th and 20th century. At one point strikes among miners led to the removal of all working men from the city by train, but not before the entire removal of a mountain, as seen in the images of the quarry now called the Lavender Pit. Today Bisbee, especially the historic district have experienced excellent growth from tourism, and artists who moved to the area.

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These are Just a few of the interesting Historic buildings of Bisbee. Check out some of the captions for more details.